Teaching, Living, and Learning: Journal: 1/08/06

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Journal: 1/08/06

It’s been an utterly comfortable weekend for me. I almost feel guilty to have spent so many hours in total liberty and wellbeing. I did nothing that I didn’t want to do, and nothing that I didn’t enjoy. From watching good football games to reading some chapters in Dickens’ Dombey and Son to working quietly in my classroom, everything I did had the feel of harmony and rightness. It was a cold weekend, but that didn’t bother me at all. Actually, I didn’t go outdoors much. I had five good days of hill-climbing exercise during the week, so I took the weekend off and enjoyed the warm indoors. How fortunate I am to be able to slightly nudge a thermostat and feel instant heat rising around me! The only regretful thing about the weekend is that I didn’t get to see my grandson. Jaimie and Jess were busy with friends, but actually, it worked out pleasantly for me, because it gave me still more hours to enjoy my peaceful solitude. Next weekend I’ll spend some exciting hours with young Noah; this weekend was for tranquil and productive hours by myself.

No comments:

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

I found this quote (below) in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. She's describing Fanny Price's home at Mansfield, but the words exactly remind me of the atmosphere I try to maintain in my classroom:
" ... no sounds of contention, no raised voice, no abrupt bursts, no tread of violence, was ever heard; all proceeded in a regular course of cheerful orderliness; everybody had their due importance; everybody's feelings were consulted."

...........

The following quote is from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I would like my classroom to be like Dr. Strong's school:

"Dr. Strong's was an excellent school...It was very gravely and decorously ordered, and on a sound system; with an appeal, in everything, to the honor and good faith of the [students], and an avowed intention to rely on their possession of these qualities unless they proved themselves unworthy of it, which worked wonders. We all felt that we had a share in the management of the place, and in sustaining its character and dignity."

If I replaced "agent" with "teacher", this passage from a short story might, I hope, describe me in my classroom:
"The agent spent his days in following what seemed to many observers to be only a dull routine, but all his steadiness of purpose, all his simple intentness, all his gifts of strategy and powers of foresight, and of turning an interruption into an opportunity, were brought to bear upon this dull routine with a keen pleasure."
-- from "The Gray Mills of Farley" by Sarah Orne Jewett